In basic form, a conventional golf bag is simply an elongated container with an open top for receiving and carrying a plurality of golf clubs. Typical golf bags include a variety of features designed to make golf club transport and retrieval more convenient. Such features include those designed to make transporting and using the golf bag easier, such as carrying straps and integrated stands, as well as those designed to improve club storage and organization.
Past efforts at improving club storage and organization have focused on a number of perceived deficiencies of conventional golf bag designs. A typical golf bag, as used by most golfers, contains approximately fourteen golf clubs. When these clubs rest within a single-compartment golf bag, the clubs are free to move within the compartment, and maintain no particular organization. In addition, it is inconvenient to select and retrieve a desired club when the clubs rest together without separation.
The prior art includes a number of solutions to these perceived problems of club disorganization. One simple solution has been to divide the single club storage compartment into several compartments by placing dividing elements in the open top. This minimal solution, however, has proven to be inadequate, as the degree of organization afforded by placing the clubs in several compartments is still insufficient for many golfers. Thus, a number of prior art patents are directed to golf bags having an individual storage compartment for each golf club. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,024 discloses a golf bag having a top plate with bores shaped to allow club shafts to pass through, a bottom plate with pegs shaped and spaced to receive club shaft ends, and flexible tubes running between the bores and the pegs to contain and isolate each golf club separately. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,513 teaches a golf club holder with a floor having holes sized for a golf club shaft, a top portion having wedge-shaped compartments to receive club heads, and tubes running between the wedge-shaped compartments and the floor holes to isolate and contain each golf club. Other similar efforts include U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,557 (foam organizer having vertical bores for individual club shafts), U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,840 (plurality of separate storage compartments having a lower portion for receiving and isolating club shafts and an upper portion for receiving and isolating club heads), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,414 (golf bag to hold clubs head-down, having partitions to isolate each individual club), to name but a few.
Several other patents achieve club isolation and organization by using clipping or other retaining mechanisms to physically restrain each individual golf club. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,703 discloses a golf bag organizer including a base having sockets to receive individual club shaft ends, and a rack having retainer elements to grip and secure each golf club. U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,132 teaches a golf bag having a plurality of partitions separating individual golf clubs, and means for holding the shafts, such as spring-pressed rubber rollers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,166 teaches a locating block mounted in the top of a golf bag and having a plurality of clip-like "locating ribs" for holding individual golf clubs in place. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,109 discloses a golf club holder having a plurality of parallel channels. A club is inserted into a channel by forcing the channel to flex slightly open, and is then held securely in the channel when the flexing force is removed.
While these past efforts have offered various solutions aimed at improving club organization and storage, for many golfers, these solutions represent impediments, rather than improvements. For example, many golfers find features that require individual clubs to be placed in individual compartments particularly inconvenient to use, since the club must be directed carefully into a confined space each time it is stowed. Similarly, features that require clubs to be clipped or otherwise restrained simply add another step to club stowage and retrieval, and such features prove to be inconvenient and even frustrating to many golfers. Thus, despite the need for golf bags having improved club organization and storage, the majority of golfers still prefer to use conventional golf bags having typically two to six compartments separated by simple dividers.